published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Moving from the basic assumption that media and television are vital sites of memory, pivotal spaces in which we learn about the past, this thesis argues that the most productive and progressive representations of the past are those that allow the past to interact with the present. Yet the past is not simply a representation in the present, it is also performed as cultural memory. One of the key concepts here is the idea that if we do indeed find historical knowledge on television and in everyday life as well as in museums and textbooks, then we might apply the concepts, roles and institutions of the museum, concepts like the archive and the curator, to television and historical consciousness in everyday life. Through this logic television programs are archives and audiences are curators, selecting music and fashions from the representation of the past and using them, performing them in everyday life. To explore this, I begin with textual analyses of the television shows American Dreams and Mad Men. Examinations of music and fashion in each show then gives way to inquiries into how the musical and sartorial artifacts contained in each program are brought out into everyday life. While these chapters primarily consider gendered histories and feminist cultural memories, I conclude with a consideration of racial histories, silenced memories and how unique juxtapositions can point to alternative archives and repertoires. / text

Certain unique sights and sounds of video games from the 1980s and 1990s have been codified as a retro game style, celebrated by collectors, historians, and game developers alike. In this report, I argue that this nostalgic celebration has escaped critical scrutiny and in particular omits the diverse experiences of girls and women who may have been alienated by the tough, intimidating nature of a twentieth-century video-game culture that was primarily created by and for boys. Indeed, attempts to attract girls to gaming, such as the 1990s girls' game movement, are usually criticized in or absent from mainstream video-game histories, and girly video games are rarely viewed with the same nostalgic fondness as games like Super Mario Bros. This condition points to a larger cultural practice of trivializing media for girls and, by extension, girlhood and girls themselves. My critical design response to this condition has been twofold. First, I have recuperated and resituated twentieth-century girly games as collectible, valuable, and nostalgic, thereby subverting conventional historical narratives and suggesting that these games have inherent cultural value. Second, I have created new works that reimagine 8-bit style as an expression of nostalgia for twentieth-century girlhood rather than for twentieth-century boyhood. This report contains documentation of some relevant projects I have undertaken, such as the creation of a video-game museum and an 8-bit video game called Electronic Sweet-N Fun Fortune Teller. In these projects and in future works, I hope to disrupt dominant narratives about video game history and nostalgia that continue to marginalize and trivialize girls' and women's experiences and participation in contemporary game cultures. / text

Depression is an increasingly common health problem among youth. There is growing empirical evidence that CBT is a promising treatment for childhood depression. It remains unclear what treatment-specific effects of CBT contribute to therapeutic gains. Cognitive theories propose that a primary mechanism of change in CBT are cognitive interventions that target depressogenic cognitions regarding the self, world, and future (cognitive triad), which are thought to mediate depression. The effects of cognitive interventions on depressive symptoms are thus hypothesized to be mediated by changes in the cognitive triad. No studies have investigated whether CBT for depressed youth works by treating the cognitive triad through the implementation of cognitive techniques. As part of a larger study analyzing the mechanisms of change in CBT for depressed youth, the purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) whether specific cognitive techniques are related to depressive symptom reduction in youth, and (2) if improvements in depressive symptoms are mediated through the cognitive triad of depressed youth. Participants were 42 girls, aged 8 to 14, who completed a manualized CBT protocol for depression in group format. Girls completed a diagnostic interview for depression and self-report measures assessing the cognitive triad. Group therapy sessions were coded for cognitive interventions. Results indicated a non-significant relation between levels of cognitive interventions and post-treatment depression scores, after controlling for pre-treatment depression. Therefore, tests of mediation were discontinued. Relevant control variables were added to the model to reduce error variance. After controlling for pre-treatment depression, age, presence of learning disorder, mastery of therapeutic skills, and behavioral interventions, cognitive interventions were significantly and positively associated with post-treatment depression. The relation between cognitive interventions and the cognitive triad was non-significant and meditational analyses were discontinued. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four cognitive interventions factors that were consistent with CBT theory. Further analyses revealed that all factors were not significantly related to post-treatment depression. Tests of interactions between cognitive interventions and behavioral interventions, age, and mastery level of therapeutic skills were also non-significant. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for further areas of research are presented. / text

<p>Uppsatsen behandlar ämnet unga högpresterande flickor som mår psykiskt dåligt. Syftet med undersökningen var att ta reda på hur skolan kan upplevas för någon som är drabbad av detta samt att få konkreta exempel på hur arbetet kan se ut på en gymnasieskola gällande detta problem.</p><p>Metoden som användes var kvalitativa intervjuer och litteraturstudie. Fem intervjuer och litteratur som behandlar ämnen som självmord, depression, ångest samt ätstörningar har varit grundläggande för undersökningen. </p><p>Den viktigaste slutsatsen är att det krävs ett annorlunda angreppssätt från skolans håll om vi vill förändra utsikterna för högpresterande flickor med psykiska problem. Det krävs bl.a. att fler lärare tar sina elever på allvar, är uppmärksamma på hur de mår samt har större kunskap på detta område.</p> / <p>The subject of this essay is high achieving girls with mental disorders. The purpose with the investigation was to find out how these girls felt during their years in school and also to get concrete examples of how a school handles these problems. </p><p>This study was based on qualitative interviews. Five interwieves and literature about suicide, depression and eating disorders have been the foundation of this study. </p><p>The most important conclusion of this work is that it seems like a new agenda will be needed if we want to improve the circumstances for high achieving girls with mental disorders. Amongst the many things that can be done, all teachers need to get more aware of how their pupils feel and more knowledge in this area.</p>

<p>The aim of the study was to develop an understanding of how adolescent South African girls in institutional care perceive their female gender role, in the past, the present and future.</p><p>The research question was: How do adolescent girls living in institutional care in South Africa perceive their female gender role in the past, the present and future? A mixed design, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, was used in order to answer the research question. The quantitative part of the study consisted of a questionnaire, and the qualitative part of the study contained seven interviews. To interpret the analyzed data a theoretical framework was used, consisting of the theory of social constructionism and gender theory. The final result of the quantitative and the quantitative parts of the study showed that the perception of the female gender role among the respondents is more stereotyped/ traditional when it comes to the area of relationships and sexuality, but more equal in the field of future occupation and the professional role. The result shows that a majority of the respondents have one view of gender roles in general, a more traditional picture of how things are supposed to be, and another, less conservative when they express their own desires of how they want their future life and household.</p>

<p>Register clashes are a linguistic phenomenon that occurs in both real and fictional interaction. This study, based on the theory of register as developed by Halliday, examines the functions of register clashes in the television drama series <em>Gilmore Girls</em>. It was hypothesized that the function of register clashes is to create humor, to characterize some characters on the show as sophisticated and witty and some others as lacking in communicative competence, or what is popularly referred to as <em>geeky</em> or <em>nerdy</em>, as well as to characterize the show. A total of 1,306 cases of register clashes were identified, of which 761 cases (58.3 percent) were clear cases and 545 cases (41.7 percent) were somewhat more doubtful. Nearly all cases of register clashes found were considered to have been used to create humor. Eight out of the ten most productive characters with respect to the utterance of register clashes were found to be characterized as witty; the other two characters produced register clashes in a way that characterized them as geeky. Each of the six episodes examined in this study was found to contain many instances of register clashes, regardless of the fact that each was written by a different author. The results thus suggest that the function of register clashes in <em>Gilmore Girls</em> is indeed to create humor, to characterize the characters, and to characterize the show.</p>

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Tyrimo objektas: kognityvinės funkcijos. Tyrimo tikslas: nustatyti ir palyginti 15-18 metų šokėjų ir šokių nelankančių merginų kognityvines funkcijas. 1. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1 - Nustatyti ir palyginti 15-18 metų šokėjų ir šokių nelankančių merginų darbinės ir verbalinės atminties rodikliai. 2 - Nustatyti ir palyginti 15-18 metų šokėjų ir šokių nelankančių merginų paprastosios ir sudėtingosios reakcijos rodikliai. 3 - Nustatyti ir palyginti 15-18 metų šokėjų ir šokių nelankančių merginų erdvinį suvokimą, strategijų plėtojimo ir vykdomųjų funkcijų rodiklius. Išvados. 1 - Nustatyta, kad verbalinės ir darbinės atminties testų rodikliai tiek šokių nelankančių merginų tiek šokėjų buvo panašūs. 2 - Paprastosios reakcijos rodikliai buvo geresni šokių nelankančių merginų, tuo tarpu sudėtingosios reakcijos rodikliai buvo geresni šokančių merginų. 3 - Šokių nelankančių merginų erdvinio suvokimo ir vykdomosios funkcijos testų rezultatai buvo geresni, tačiau strategijų plėtojimo rodikliai geresni šokėjų. Rekomendacijos ir pasiūlymai. Siekiant objektyviai įvertinti šokio įtaka kognityvinių funkcijų rodikliams yra tikslinga testuoti ir palyginti ne tik šokėjų ir šokių nelankančių 15 – 18 m. merginų grupes, tačiau nustatyti šokio poveikį, kai tiriamosios grupės testavimai vyktų prieš pradedant lankyti šokių užsiėmimus ir po numatyto intervencijos laikotarpio. / The object: of the cognitive functions. The aim: to identify and compare the 15-18 dancers and not dancing girls cognitive functions. Objectives: 1 - To identify and compare the 15-18 dancers and not dancing girls and verbal working memory performance. 2 - Identify and compare the 15-18 dancers and not dancing girls ordinary and difficult reaction rates. 3 - Identify and compare the 15-18 dancers and not dancing girls a three-dimensional understanding of the strategies and the development of executive function tests. Conclusions: 1 - It was found not dancing girls and dancers verbal and working memory test indicators were similar. 2 - Ordinary reactions were higher for not dancing girls, while difficult reaction was superior dancing girls. 3 – Not dancing girls a three-dimensional perception and executive function test results were better, but the development of strategies to perform was better of dancers. Recommendations and suggestions. In order to objectively evaluate the dance influence cognitive variables, it is appropriate to test and compare not only the dancers and the non dancing girls, 15 - 18 years groups of girls, but to determine the impact of the dance, when the research team testing conducted prior to attending dance classes and after the intervention period provided.